Is this something new, or something we have seen before?

Hello all

So as I was watching wrestling this week, I saw something that caught my attention on WWE. I am really trying to be unbiased, and write about all wrestling and not just WWE, but I have not seen much in the way of TNA for me to comment on, and there are no other companies on TV. So it is hard for me to keep up with them without me going on line and finding out some behind the scenes information that this blog is not based on. I write this from my own point of view. I try not to read too much of anyone else’s online stuff, because I don’t want my blog to become that.

So this week I was watching WWE, and was starting to notice something. I am noticing that they are starting to do something that is maybe four years past due. They are trying to turn a character around. I for one do not know if they will be a success. As I stated earlier, this move would have been better served if they would have done it four years ago.

This week on RAW, Jack Swagger beat Zack Ryder for the US championship. Well, after that John Cena spoke to the RAW General Manager, John Laurinaitis. Cena asked if he could have a match with Swagger. The G.M. agreed and they were set. Swagger was in the ring, and Cena came out to meet him. But instead of them having a match Cena beat the crap out of Swagger. He got to a point where it looked like he almost snapped. He picked up the steel stairs and almost bashed Swagger’s head. Then there was a video from Kane, telling Cena to embrace the hate.

From all that happened on RAW, it looks to me that the WWE is looking to turn Cena in to a heel. As I said earlier in this blog I think it may be a little late to be making this move. There was a time when he was so hated (for lack of a better term) that they could have turned him bad, and made him a huge star. But they waited too long.

Back in 2004 after he won the US title at WrestleMania, he was one of, if not the most popular superstar in the WWE. He was different, and cool. He came out every week in a different sports jersey, and later that year he even created his own US title spinner belt. It seemed like a very natural move to make him the face of the company.

After the very next Mania, they did just that. Cena was the WWE champion. Created a brand new spinner WWE title (which is still being used today, though it does not spin), and was off and running. In his 1st reign as the WWE champion he defeated just about everyone they put in front of him, for almost a whole year. He beat Kurt Angle, he retired Chris Jericho, and he even won an elimination chamber match, after he was one of the 1st two men to enter (which up to that point no one had ever done). And it lasted for a long time (almost a year).

After his 1st reign lasted so long, the only man to beat him, Edge, had a title reign of less than a month. Cena won the belt back and people started to turn against him. We as fans were getting tired of seeing Cena have matches with other wrestlers who were better than him, but always coming out in the end.

Over the years more and more people started to turn against Cena. This would have been the perfect time to turn Cena heel. Instead of making him almost superhuman. As I talked to some of my friends who were wrestling fans, someone compared him to Hulk Hogan. That is a perfect comparison. Hogan would have title so long, no one else had a chance to become the champ, and become a star. The same thing happened when Cena was the champ. This should have been the time when they turned Cena heel. If a heel keeps winning the title we all watch to see him lose. But with Cena being a face, we still wanted him to lose. Also, Cena is so good on the mic; he would do a great job. Think in the same mold of CM Punk, this past summer, how they gave him the mic, and it was TV gold, it would be the same if Cena was a heel.

It does seem like WWE is going to make this move. But I am not sure if it will have the same success as Hogan going heel. That was something we thought we would never see. We did not think we would see the greatest wrestling hero of all time, turn into a villain, and spit in the face of all of his fans that he worked for years to build up. But because it was new, it worked. But would it work now. Remember, they tried it with Stone Cold Steve Austin, but that did not work so well. Eventually fans came back. Now I think this will work for the people out there who were fans, but now hate Cena, but in the long run, I think they’re just a little too late.



AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The Enforcer!!!!!

Hello all

This week as I was watching wrestling I noticed that WWE is getting ready for the Royal Rumble. As I have told you all before, this is my favorite time of the year. It means we are getting close to WrestleMania. Along with the Rumble, there are a few other things that have come out to symbolize that it is Mania time. One thing that I have started to look forward to as well is the announcement of the WWE Hall of Fame inductions.

This past week on RAW they did something that I don’t think they have ever done before. They have chosen to announce 2 inductions on one show. The 1st person they showed was Edge. I do have some question about that. Not that I don’t think he deserves to be there, because I do. I think he is along the lines of Shawn Michaels, and Brett Hart. A guy who did everything you could do as a tag team wrestler, then won the intercontinental championship, and waited a long time before finally winning the WWE title. He would go on to become a multi-time world champion. His career was cut short because of injury. Now my only question is, is it too early to induct him? I mean he just retired last year. But I will save that, maybe for another blog.

The next induction was not for a person, but for a group of people, “The Four Horsemen”. It is very obvious that the Horsemen are very deserving of their spot in the Hall. During Ric Flair’s introduction speech, Triple H said that he should have his own wing in the Hall. Well if that’s the case, then there should be a “Faction’s Wing” in the Hall, and of course the Horsemen would have their own.

Every one of us wrestling fans at one point or another (if we were old enough) was fans of the Horsemen. They were the best talkers, best dressers, and more importantly, the best wrestlers. If not for the Horsemen, there would be no NOW, or DX, 2 factions that changed pro wrestling.

Now, I know everyone was probably Ric Flair fans when he was a part of the Horsemen. He was their main guy, the world champ and a legit main eventer. But I will be doing my blog today about a guy who should, himself, be a Hall of Famer. A guy who has been a tag team champion in every company he has been in, and though he never won the world title, he is still someone who deserves the respect that one would get as a champion. And this man is “The Enforcer” Arm Anderson.

Anderson started off his career in 1982, working for a few indie promotions, before winding up in Southeastern Championship Wrestling, an NWA affiliate. He worked there and won their tag team titles a few times.

In 1984, he went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, which we all know as the precursor to WCW. While wrestling there, he caught the eye of very experienced wrestler, Ole Anderson. Though they have a few striking resemblance, and they wrestled as brothers, they really are not related. Ole liked what he saw in Arm, and he was in need a new tag team partner, since his partner, Gene Anderson (who was really not his brother either), was retiring.
The newly formed team became known as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, which was the name of the tag team of Ole and Gene. They work extremely well together. So well in fact, that it took them no time to win the NWA World Tag Team Titles. The team was becoming a dominate force, but they were starting to develop some new enemies. The Road Warriors and the Rock and Rock Express. But the tag team was not the only enemies they made, because they started to make enemies of Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA, 2 of the biggest single competitors in the company at the time. Lucky for them, they got some help from 2 other guys who had similar enemies, Ric Flair and Tally Blanchard.

These 4 started to work together a lot. They also did a lot their interviews together. They would run in on each other’s matches to help the other hold on to their titles, or to beat down the good guys. One day as the 4 of them were doing an interview, all 4 men draped in championship gold, Arm said a statement that pretty much gave them their name. He said (and I am paraphrasing) Not since the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse have so few men, done so much damage. From that day forward the 4 men were known as the 4 Horsemen.

The original Horsemen would go on to have some of the more epic battles with those wrestlers I mentioned earlier. Ole and Arm were front and center in the tag team division. Arm also was trying to make a name for himself in the singles division, in the beginning of 1986; he won the World TV championship. So the 4 horsemen were riding high, until Ole and Arm lost to the Rock and Roll Express, at Starrcade 86’. After that Pay Per View, the Horsemen decided that Ole was the weak link in their chain, and decided to replace him with Lex Luger.

After losing his TV title, and tag team partner, Arm and Tally Blanchard decide to form a tag team to bring the belts back to the Horsemen. They did that, defeating the Rock and Roll Express in 1987. Though the Horsemen dominated the NWA (and the world of pro wrestling for that matter), Arm and Tally both felt they were under paid. So they both decided to move to New York (what everyone in the business referred to the WWE at that time). Their last match as NWA champs was against that Midnight Express in September of 88.

Arm and Tully went to the WWE and became known as the Brain Busters. In WWE they were a very formidable tag team. Remember back in those days, the WWE had plenty of tag teams that could give them a good fight, and vise verse. The Rockers, The Hart Foundation, The British Bulldogs, Demolition, just to name a few. And the Brain Busters were a team to be reckoned with. They climbed up the WWE tag team ladder, and even won the titles from Demolition. They held those belts for 3 months, before they dropped back to Demolition. They both decided they wanted to go back to Jim Crockett Promotions (which was now WCW), but Tully failed a drug test, and never got a chance to come back to the big time as a pro wrestler.

Anderson came back and set his sights on the WCW TV title. He won it in January of 1990, and held it till January of 1991. He lost the belt to the “Z-Man” Tom Zenk, and won it back a week later. Then he lost the belt again to a former tag team champ, and his future tag partner, “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton.

After losing the TV title, he would go back to tag team wrestling. From 1991-1997 Anderson held the tag titles with 3 different partners and also became a member of another successful faction, the Dangerous Alliance. Anderson may have gotten his shot at the WCW title (I mean David Arquette won that title), but Anderson’s body broke down on him in 1997.

Anderson stayed on WCW television all the way until before the company went out of business. He was on one of the biggest rating nights that WCW had ever had, the night the 4 Horsemen were reformed, with a whole new cast, except for Ric Flair, of course. When WCW was purchased by WWE, Anderson became a road agent for WWE, and he still does that now, as well as mentoring some of the up and coming talent now.

I think Arm Anderson is one of the more underappreciated guys to ever lace up boots. As a multi-time champion, holding every belt in WCW except for the US and World titles, I think he is one of those guys who should have, and maybe even would have, been given the title and a chance to carry the company. Maybe back in those days they did not understand that these former tag team guys, who were not very big, were still great workers, could tell a story, and could keep the prestige of the world title. Despite him never winning a world title, I think deserves to be a Hall of Famer, all by himself.


AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLIIIIIINNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

What makes these guys so special?

Hello all

First I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season, whatever you have celebrated over the past few weeks since the last blog. And Happy New Year to all of you out there. So now it is time for a new blog.

As I have been watching wrestling this past month, I noticed something that made me wonder. Even as I was watching it with my wife, I wondered out loud about something that was happening and she even asked the question that became today’s blog topic. About 3 weeks ago on Raw, CM Punk started off the show with announcing the results from the championship matches at the TLC Pay per View. He won his match, Zack Ryder(the self-proclaimed internet champion) became the new US champion, CM Punk defended his WWE title, and after the World Heavyweight Title match, which was won by the Big Show, Daniel Bryan cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase, and become the new World Champ.

So as I was watching these guys, I realized they all had something in common, they are all in the positions they are in because of their popularity with the fans. I have watched these 3 guys since they have all been in WWE, and I can’t say that any of them have had break through moments in the ring, as far as their wrestling. So it is their popularity which has gotten them through the glass ceiling to being at or near the top of the WWE. But why?

We all know why Punk is suddenly so popular. Most of the wrestling fans out there are sheep and will follow anything. I have done 2 blogs on how subpar I think Punk is, so I will not dive deep into that, but I will debunk his claim as being the best wrestler in the world. Beside his match at SummerSlam, I cannot tell you when Punk has had a good match. And that match was with the man I call “Mr. Pay per View”, John Cena. Punk has been on Raw, has been on ppvs, and has done everything he could, but I don’t think he is anywhere near the best in the world. I don’t even think he is the best wrestler in the in the WWE. Even my wife who loves Punk’s “tell it like it is” persona, thinks his wrestling is boring.

Bryan is a very different story. Bryan is an international sensation. He actually started at Shawn Michael’s old wrestling school. Then he made his debut in WWE on the former secondary shows “Heat” and “Velocity”. Not catching on there, he then went to Japan and worked with New Japan Pro Wrestling. He wrestled there for years, making a name for himself by winning the IWGP Jr. Tag team titles. After he was done in Japan, he went on to become one of the “Founding Fathers” (or at least that is what the fans called him), of Ring of Honor. In ROH Bryan became a big Indy star. In 2005 he won their World Title. From the 2005-2009 Bryan wrestled all over the world, but did not get a shot at the big time, until WWE NXT. NXT was a reality wrestling show, where they had wrestlers come on and compete for a WWE contract. Though Bryan did not win, he was a part of the original Nexus. During the Nexus’s initial take over, at the end of Raw on June 7th, Bryan attacked the ring announcer Justin Roberts, choking him with his own tie. This was deemed too much by the WWE and they fired him. After that Bryan went back to the Indy’s, wrestling in the NWA, even challenging their world champ Adam Pearce. Amid plenty of backlash from not only the fans, but John Cena, the WWE brought Bryan back, and gave him a big push as the US champ. After a successful reign as the US champ, he won the Money in the Bank match for SmackDown this year, and just cashed it in. As you can tell, this has been long overdue for a guy like Bryan. And after the Big Show finally defeated Mark Henry, Bryan cashed in his briefcase, and became the new World Champion.

Zack Ryder is a totally different story. Unlike the other guys in this blog, he has not had a major stint in the Indy’s. Ryder started out as a tag team wrestler, with Curt Hawkins. During “Armageddon” 2007, the duo helped Edge win the World Heavyweight Championship. Then they formed a faction with Edge Chavo Guerrero, Vicky Guerrero, and Bam Neely, called La Familia. Hawkins and Ryder won the Tag Team titles at the “Great American Bash” 2008. This would prove to be the height of their career as a tag team, because they lost the titles 2 months later, and both were put on the backburner. Both decided they would go to the internet to make themselves popular. Where this failed for Hawkins, It soared for Ryder. Ryder reached new heights with his internet shows. He is big on Twitter and YouTube. So much to the point that he crowned himself the internet champion. After becoming famous on the internet, Ryder started appearing on Raw, and becoming even more popular. Crowds would cheer “WE WANT RYDER”. In the “Survivor Series” this year, the Madison Square Garden crowd was chanting that, after the main event. Even the Rock said he loved all of Ryder’s stuff. This meteoric rise got even bigger when “Long Island Iced Z” won the United States Championship, at the TLC, Pay per View.

I think it was kind of ironic that these 3 guys opened the show on that Raw. They have a lot in common. It is amazing to see how they have all worked to get to where they are. I personally wonder are they on top because they have been the hardest workers and it is their time, or are they on top because they have the people on their side. Don’t get me wrong, it is very important to have the fans behind you, but should that be the only factor in determining who should wear the gold, and who shouldn’t. I could name you at least 10 guys who have never achieved what Punk has and they are 3 times the wrestler he will ever be. Again, I wonder if they have done all the right things and made it up to the top, or if they have found their niche and are using it to their full advantage.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLLLLIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!